The Friday Cyclotouriste

Winter in southern Arizona this is not.

This is Copenhagen, Denmark. A city where bicycling is just another way for everyone — young and old; fashionable and unfashionable; working class and upper-class — to get from here to there whatever the weather is like outside.

The photo is from an article at Copenhagenzine.com reflecting on the foolishness of overly specialized bicycling subcultures (in this case, enthusiasts proclaiming the imperative for high-tech winter cycling gear). It reads, in part:

“When sub-cultural groups start trying to indoctrinate and convert the public, it rarely ever succeeds. For the better part of a century, people all over the planet rode bicycles because they were quick, easy, convenient and enjoyable. In hilly cities. In hot cities. In snowy cities.

After the bicycle largely disappeared from the urban landscape because urban planning started revolving around the car and the automobile industry began their dreadfully effective marketing after the Second World War, many regions in the world have been left suffering in a bicycle vacuum.

The result is that an entire generation has been given the impression that cycling is something that a few people do for sport or recreation and not much else…”

The point is if you live in a cold climate, you probably already have all the clothes you need (in your normal wardrobe) to bicycle in cold weather.

Does the same principle apply to our hot (very hot!) AZ summers?

Nathan

An image made on the patio of my Dad’s place on New Year’s Day.

The green and magenta color combination is always striking. These two colors are on opposite sides of the color wheel, making them complimentary.

As a side note, when two complimentary colors are combined at the proper intensities they produce white light. So, Green (G) + Magenta (M) = White (W).  In addition, if you combine the three primary colors (Red, Green, Blue) white light is also produced (R+G+B=W). The great physicist James Clerk Maxwell figured this out (along with his theories of electromagnetism) in the late 1800s, but now I’ve completely digressed.

If you want to play around with these color combinations, here’s a color wheel to experiment with and here’s some good basic color theory.

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I didn’t get much bicycle riding in during 2011 due to distractions (like my job and other photography projects) and the natural fall-off that came along with moving to an auto-centric city with a hot desert climate. I’m not sure what 2012 will produce. A multi-day bicycle tour would sure be fun. Europe would be great.

One thing that is clear: since I began this blog in early 2009, the so-called bicycling movement has gone from a niche activity to a fully mainstream cultural phenomenon. Core77 has an interesting year-end review titled How the Cycling Movement Gained Momentum in 2011.

Anyhow, today’s landscape image was made while riding through the parking lot of the El Con Mall (home to Target, Home Depot, and a 20-screen cineplex). I didn’t have a reason to post this during 2011, but I enjoy the photo so I’m making it my 2012 New Year’s Day image.

I hope everyone has a year full of joyful bicycle riding with family, friends, and loved ones.

Happy New Year!

Nathan

A couple months ago, I mentioned Michael Embacher’s new book Cyclepedia. Well, the publisher has produced a stunning iPad version.

Sometimes I almost convince myself I need an iPad.

Then, I take a deep breath and remind myself once again about the unlimited nature of desire (and the Buddha’s second noble truth).

For that small segment of folks that occupy the space at the intersection of design and velo-fandom, I present samples of Guilherme Henrique’s “eight illustrations representing the adrenaline of riding fixed-gear bikes in the city and on the velodrome.”

Here’s a short summary from Prolly is Not Probably:

Guilherme Henrique is a graphic designer and as far as I can tell, Ville Vs. Velodrome is a case study on the scale of the city, the bike rider, the velodrome, racers and their bikes. Each of the templates have detailed descriptions as to what is the quantifying or qualifying characteristics of the scale stepping.

My 22-month old nephew’s first tricycle!

He’s actually more into backhoe’s than biking at this age.

The site is experiencing technical difficulties. To deal with the situation, I’ve temporarily shifted to a new wordpress theme. The old, Black Letterhead Friday Cyclotouriste will return…I hope.  I do like the simple, crisp, look of this however…hmmm, maybe I should consider a permanent change?

If I work in a big city again — San Francisco, for instance — I see myself adopting this kind of look.

The photo is from the website, Nerd Boyfriend, which uses pictures (usually retro) of pop cultural figures and then links to places to purchase the clothes. This is Wesley Snipes a minor, recurring character in the TV show, 30 Rock.

However, Archival Clothing is probably the better website for interesting, well-made accessories and apparel (I love their new duffle bag), but sadly no pictures of bicycles.

UPDATE: Well, was I ever wrong about Archival Clothing! Lesli Larson one of the company’s principals is a bicyclist extraordinaire. She has a really cool Vanilla bicycle (check out the pictures from the blog) and she completed the storied PBP this year (a 1200km round trip brevet from Paris to Brest and back). Archival Clothing actually seems to have quite an obsession with bicycle culture and bicycling. I stand corrected.

Nathan

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My buddy from work and I rendez-vous’d for a ride through the Saguaro National Park, beginning a couple miles outside the park on Old Spanish Trail.

Things started poorly for me as I somehow got a flat on the way to our meeting point!

This little pull-out — Javelna Rock — was a good spot for a short rest, some apples, tangerines, and a granola bar.

Nathan

The Adventures of Tintin (by Herge) have been adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson set for release in the US later this month. Some Tintinologists don’t care for the movie; but, I’m keeping an open mind and hoping for the best.

Here’s a European magazine cover promoting the 1982 Tour de France with Tintin leading a breakaway with Captain Haddock, Prof. Calculus, and Thompson and Thompson in pursuit.

…and here’s Tintin on a hipster-like-single speed (just some of Herge‘s artwork from The Blue Lotus — arguably one of the best Tintin adventures).

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A beautiful Thanksgiving Day in Sabino Canyon with the sun streaming through a large Arizona Sycamore (Platanus wrightii).

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One of the highlights of the day was this nine-piece Mariachi Band.

They set up on the east side of the first river crossing (the Santa Cruz River) so that as we crested the bank we were treated to their beautiful costumes and lovely music!

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This guy definitely deserves some kind of recognition for riding 111 miles on a unicycle. How he handled some of the steeper hills, descents, and cross winds, I have no idea.

This was not an easy picture to make while riding in a packed field near the start of the race. I have the Ebisu’s stable handling to thank for it.

Nathan

Featured Comment by Andy: “I am the mystery unicyclist.  I completed the 111 mile ride in 8:51:46 for a Silver finish.  My unicycle has a 36 inch wheel with a geared hub that has 2 speeds 1:1 and 1:1.5.  That allows me to go really fast in high gear and shift to low gear to tackle the steep hills.  I have a detailed write-up of the day on blog page of my website www.tucsonuni.com.”

I opted to ride my Ebisu with its wide 650Bx38mm tires and large front bag (which, indeed, is quite large, but exaggerated in this photo by some lens distortion).

The cue sheet with some notes and available aid stations highlighted.

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I was really excited about El Tour having heard so much hype about it over the years.

Things started great until about the 45-50 mile mark when I began to develop a sharp pain in my left knee (a recurring problem for me). I pushed on for another 10 miles or so, but the pain became excruciating with every pedal stroke. That’s when I knew my day would end with no chance of finishing the full distance. I abandoned the ride around mile 59, after about 3.5-to-4 hours of riding.

Still, it felt great being up before dawn and riding in darkness to the start line, then pedaling through the desert as the sun rose slowly in the sky.

Plus, I made a few nice images that I hope to post over the next few days.

Nathan

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Today is the 29th annual El Tour de Tucson — a 111 mile ride around the perimeter of the city.

This image has nothing to do with the Tour…(It was made on 4th Ave. last week-end)…but I really dig it!

Plus, for days afterward my housemates and I could not stop belting out Taaacooo Barrachooo in absurd operatic fashion.

Click below to hear award winning singer-songwriter and Bay Area troubadour, Forest Sun, giving his rendition:

Nathan

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I love mixtes and I often ride one despite the tendency of people to connote them with “ladies” or “girls” bikes.

In fact, I wrote about mixtes — their practicality and how they relate to my sense of manhood — in a post a couple years ago which you can read here.

Nathan

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The Greater Arizona Bicycling Association (aka GABA) had it’s Fall bike swap this past Saturday. Oblivious to the schedule, I arrived at 2pm just as everyone was packing up.

I’m not really sure what I missed, the pickings were pretty slim at this late hour.

Maybe that’s for the best. I own four bikes already and I have two, unfinished, project bikes (which are basically just bare frames — an old Raleigh Supercourse with exquisite Nervez lugs and a very practical Peugeot mixte).

Still, I was secretly hoping to find another 1980s Fuji tandem with Campy and TA components like the one posted on Craigslist a couple months back (which I missed out on).

Nathan

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The warm glow of the desert at dusk.

I passed one car and one rattlesnake during the ride. Plus, I got to see the sunset.

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Saguaro National Park is part of the national park system so bicyclists are required to pay an entry fee just like everyone else. The cost is $5 (with re-entry permitted for seven days with the receipt). Automobiles are charged $10.

As Laura commented in the previous post, a National Park Service annual pass can be purchased for $80, allowing unlimited entry to all parks and national monuments for 12 months.

This is a great after work ride since my day finishes on the east side of town.

The short, very steep descent immediately after you enter the park is a recipe for a wipe-out if you’re not expecting it. (Just beyond the shade in the above image the road plummets and makes a sharp right hand turn at the bottom!)

There’s a parking lot at the Sahuaro Baptist Church on Old Spanish Trail and Houghton, which turns this ride into a short 12-mile loop. Starting the ride at the church means not having to deal with streets like Broadway during the rush hour.

Staying with the Italian theme from yesterday, I bring you this architectural wonder currently under construction in Milan.

According to the Financial Times, it is “the most exciting new tower in the world“.  Read more at Stefano Boeri Architetti.

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As it turns out, my favorite gelateria (Gelato Allegro) is becoming my favorite place for a real Italian-style espresso. I was so excited by this find that I forgot to make a picture of my espresso before consuming it! So what you see is the empty cup.

Allegro uses LaVazza espresso and Ivan (the owner) pulls a very short shot (i.e., a ristretto shot), which is just how I like it. Even though coffee snobbery is achieving new heights with places like Cartel Coffee and Sparkroot here in Tucson, it’s still nearly impossible to get a genuine European-style ristretto at these places or anywhere else.

Here is a very good exposition of what makes an espresso so unique (courtesy of the Josuma Coffee Company):

Espresso is approximately one ounce of a dark, smooth, heavy-bodied, aromatic, bittersweet coffee drink topped by a thick reddish-brown foam of tiny bubbles. It is not six times stronger than a cup of coffee, as many people imply from the smaller volume; it is actually a completely different coffee beverage. The foam, or crema, that captures the intense coffee flavors is as important as the liquid coffee underneath.

crema markedly alters an espresso in terms of its mouth feel, density, viscosity, wetting power, and foam-forming ability, making it the single most important indicator of espresso quality. If there is no crema, it means the oils have not been emulsified, and hence it is not an espresso.

The remarkable thing about a properly made espresso is that maximum flavor is extracted from the ground coffee while much of the caffeine and excess acids are left behind. The high pressure of the extraction and the small volume of water that passes through the ground coffee are mostly responsible for this feat.

Nathan

Fall/Winter comes much earlier on Mt. Lemmon than in the valley below.

Ascending from the valley floor in Tucson to the top of Mt. Lemmon is equivalent to traveling from Mexico to Canada — in terms of the biological diversity and the number of ecological zones one passes through.

These high elevation mountain zones are called Sky Islands:

Weldon Heald coined the term “sky islands” in 1967 to denote mountain ranges that are isolated from each other by intervening valleys of grassland or desert. The valleys of this basin and range country act as barriers to the movement of certain woodland and forest species, somewhat like saltwater seas isolate plants and animals on oceanic islands – hence the common association with the archipelago phenomenon. Other species, such as mountain lions and black bears, depend on movement corridors between mountain islands to maintain genetic diversity and population size. (from The Sky Island Alliance website)

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In Tucson summer is still hanging around with temperatures in the mid-to-high 80′s, but up at 8,000 feet in the Santa Catalina Mountains Autumn is in full swing.

The Aspen Loop from Marshall Gulch is alive with color this week.

Full disclosure: I didn’t bike all the way up Mt. Lemmon — I took an automobile — but there is precedent for me posting a holiday (e.g. Haloween, Xmas, Solstice) photograph, whether or not there was any riding involved. And now that the weather is cooling down, I plan to revisit the idea of bicycling to the top……really I do!

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Bicycling in Tucson has been an adjustment for me.

The biggest difference is that it takes about 60 minutes of riding to get out of town and into a more natural environment. Those 60 minutes can feel even longer as this time is usually spent traveling on very busy, automobile-dominated roadways, which I find rather stressful.

Don’t get me wrong, There are plenty of bike lanes and routes criss-crossing Tucson, but most of these routes (as mentioned above) do not inspire my style of carefree and joyous riding. It may be a surprise to some, but I’m not an ideological cyclist. I don’t fight against conditions be it weather, road surface, or personal safety just to prove that bicycling is a viable form of transit (although I respect those who do). I ride a bicycle simply because of its potential to enhance the quality of my everyday life.

In other words: I ride a bicycle out of an Epicurean desire for happiness.

Now there are always exceptions. Sometimes I ride for physical exercise. Sometimes I ride to accomplish a goal (e.g. to reach the top of the mountain, or to get from point A to point B within X amount of time). But for the most part bicycling is a way to enhance my own pleasure by drawing me closer to my surroundings and helping me feel the aliveness of my own body.

The bike paths along the Santa Cruz and Rialto Rivers are some of the exceptions — places in Tucson where carefree, contemplative riding is easy.